The Great Solar Eclipse of 2017 crossed the continent, from Oregon to South Carolina, and gave millions of people the chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring events in the natural world.

But you had to be within the "path of totality", a narrow band across the earth's surface several thousand miles long but only about 70 miles wide. Outside that band you would only see a partial eclipse, not a total eclipse.

And there is no such thing as a "partial total eclipse", despite the impression blogs and the news media might give. I honestly think that's why so many people misunderstand the utter beauty of the spectacle; they may have seen a partial eclipse in the past that was total somewhere else, and even though they weren't in the path the news kept gushing about it being a total eclipse, so they assume they must have seen a total eclipse and just didn't find it all that impressive.


Posted by Dan 08/29/2017, revised 09/06/2017

Kim (and about 6,000 other athletes) participated in the Accenture Chicago Triathlon in August. She finished 103 of 6149 overall, 8th of 2078 women, and 2nd in her age group!

In June she competed in the 2007 USAT National Age Group Championship held in Oregon. Despite being out most of the past year rehabbing from a broken ankle, and this being only her second race ever at the Olympic distance, she finished an impressive 25th in the highly competive 25-29 age group! Here are some photos of her at the race.

Way to go, Kim!!

Posted by Dan 08/27/2007, revised 01/27/2008

Nik completed his final race for the Cal Poly cycling team, the Wheelmen. The Western Collegiate Cycling Conference's final race of the 2011 Mountain Bike season was hosted by Cal-Berkeley at the Bailey Bike Park course.


Nik racing down the slalom course at Bailey Bike Park


Posted by Dan 11/14/2011

For the past 3 months, our Flogging Molly volleyball 4's team has played every Friday night, fighting to get into the end-of-season playoffs. Well, we did it. We've worked hard, and this past Friday evening, we came into the playoff games in 4th place, the lowest position for playoffs. We beat the 3rd place team in a solid, close game, and then an hour later beat the 2nd place team by a Golden Point! It was off to the Saturday Championship game with us!

Saturday evening, 5:15pm, we faced the Yellow Tails, the #1 team all season. Games against them are always my favorite - they're a good team that plays the game well and enjoys the sport, and we always play a close game against them. We came out pumped, and I could feel my competitive side really coming through. The whole season has always been about fun and recreation, and it still was all the way through, but this was the Championship game - this was my arena, and it felt GOOD.

The game was tight, and we fought hard, but the Yellow Tails are a good team, and in the end they got the win they deserved. I could feel my competitive side get a bit frustrated with the loss for a moment - I really don't like losing. But very quickly, I remembered the whole reason behind the league: this was a fun thing to do with a great group of friends, and the 4 of us (roommates Scott and Crystal and our friend Hugo) have really come together over the season to create a fun team to play on.

We never would've thought that our scraggly crew, who came into the season late, losing all of our first games, wildly scampering all over the court for out-of-control balls, would ever make it to being the Runners Up of the league. But we did it, and we had a fantastic time doing so. Now, each one of us has a great glass-framed "trophy" sitting on our desks, reminding us of the great time we had this season.

Our trophy for 2nd place - Hugo, me, Crystal, and Scott. Yay Flogging Molly!

Posted by Whitney 06/15/2008, revised 06/19/2008